Chapter 82: The Change of the Cyclone

Under the force of this violent explosion, Rod nearly lost his life due to the shock. The intense force inside his body caused him to spit out more blood again. Ever since entering this forest, Rod even felt as though his blood had become worthless—spitting out a little from time to time was already considered a great success.

The tearing force within his dantian made Rod gasp in pain. Fortunately, he managed to hold his mind steady; otherwise, he would have collapsed by now.

After the explosions, everything gradually began to calm down. Strangely enough, although the elements flowing into his body were still black and red, the dark element and the fire element seemed to reach some kind of agreement and stopped fighting. Instead, they split apart and operated independently.

Though strange, he was finally out of danger, which allowed Rod to breathe a sigh of relief. Once everything settled, he hurriedly focused on his dantian. There, a red-and-black cyclone had formed, resembling a Bagua array—each half occupying its own domain and spinning slowly like a vortex within his dantian!

The martial energy flowing into his dantian through his meridians also divided regularly into two parts, each entering its respective half of the cyclone. The black-and-red cyclone spun slowly in the center, looking both beautiful and eerie.

The red half emitted a scorching aura, while the black half released a cold one, creating a sense of yin and yang.

Watching this strange cyclone, Rod realized he had finally reached the mid-stage of the Saint level—at least for now, he was safe.

Yet, this sense of breakthrough and survival did not bring him joy. To Rod, this cyclone resembled a time bomb, capable of exploding at any moment and threatening his life. Anyone who saw this situation would surely not be happy.

“Damn it!” After observing it for a long time without finding any flaws or solutions, Rod cursed violently. It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to merge the red half with the black half—any attempt to do so would trigger a fierce counterattack from the black cyclone, leading to a deadly battle. Rod had a premonition that this fight would be a life-or-death struggle, far more intense than previous ones. He dared not act rashly, especially given his current physical condition.

But soon another serious problem arose—after reaching the Saint level, shouldn’t his combat energy turn purple? The cyclone should also be purple, yet what he saw was red. What was going on? Red combat energy was supposed to be a hallmark of Imperial-level warriors. Could it be that this had caused him to drop back to the Imperial level? Or was it the black combat energy that had caused the change?
That’s impossible. Cyclones can only form at the mid-Saint level, and he could clearly feel that his strength was far greater than before at the Imperial level!
Although Rod had noticed this before, he hadn’t bothered to think about it. Now, upon reflection, he was filled with doubts—so many questions that they could fill a whole book of “Why?”—yet not a single one could be answered!
With these dual puzzles regarding the cyclone and its color, Rod’s mind was in complete chaos!
“Xuanyuan, what’s going on? Is there any solution?” At his wits’ end, Rod placed his hopes on Xuanyuan, hoping to get some help from him. After all, with his wide experience, he might have encountered such a situation before.
“Don’t ask me! I don’t know either! I’ve never practiced combat energy, and this is the first time I’ve encountered things like this! I have no idea what this damned thing is. Right now, I’m struggling to keep myself stable. Just stabilize them and prevent them from exploding for now. We’ll deal with the rest later! But one thing is for sure—your strength is definitely greater than that of a mid-Saint-level warrior. The color of combat energy doesn’t determine everything. Don’t limit yourself to this. Don’t worry about the color; focus instead on figuring out how to make these two energies coexist peacefully.” But Xuanyuan’s answer only made Rod want to cry!
“This cyclone is fierce—its suction force is huge! Damn it! Why do I feel like it wants to merge me with it? Bastard! What the hell is going on? What kind of monster have you created?” Soon after, Xuanyuan’s angry shouts came again, clearly more anxious this time.
“Suction force?” Rod hadn’t expected this either. He never thought it would pose a threat to Xuanyuan, which made him even more bewildered!

“Never mind, let’s leave it for now!” Since Xuan Yuan couldn’t do anything, Rod knew he had to put it aside for the time being. The pain, fatigue, and exhaustion in his body made him realize that what he needed most right now was a good rest. He would deal with the rest later once he woke up, hoping nothing would go wrong during his rest period.

“Damn it! What’s going on? It looks exactly like that thing—how could it appear here? And there’s also something different about it! What’s really going on? I guess I need to study this carefully. Maybe this thing can have unexpected effects on that guy!”

“Hey, forget it. I’ll take a gamble this time. Little guy, I hope you won’t disappoint me!” Just as Rod fell into sleep, a flash of blue light suddenly appeared in his abdomen, followed by Xuan Yuan’s murmuring voice from the void. Naturally, Fen Tian noticed this scene. He wasn’t unfamiliar with Xuan Yuan either—after spending so much time together, it would be strange if he hadn’t noticed him by now. And don’t forget, when Fen Tian was taken inside his body, he had suffered greatly at Xuan Yuan’s hands. Seeing Xuan Yuan again after so long made his body tremble with fear.

Rod slept for a whole day. Looking around at the dark surroundings, he frowned. Having stayed in this hellish place for so long had blurred his sense of time. There was no distinction between day and night, and his eyes had also suffered greatly under such conditions!

Feeling the vigorous fighting energy within him, he smiled slightly. It was enough that the black-and-red cyclones could coexist peacefully for now!

“Roar…” A loud shout echoed, as his fighting energy was pushed to its limit, reaching the mid-stage of the Sacred level. Before experiencing the full power of this energy, Rod decided to conduct an experiment. Of course, the simplest way was to form a fighting energy armor.

With another loud shout, his fighting energy surged, and elements from the outside world rushed toward him. Little by little, these elements merged around his body and quickly solidified into a tangible form. The entire process took only about four seconds.

Four seconds later, the fighting energy armor was fully formed. Such speed could be considered outstanding across the entire continent. It might not be the best, but it was definitely among the top.

Feeling the solidity of his armor, Rod smiled in satisfaction. As the saying goes, before reaching the mid-stage of the Saint level, one is only laying the foundation—just a minor existence. It is only by entering this realm that one truly steps into the path of martial arts and opens another door. If the combat energy before was like a vigorous Yangtze River, then now it’s like a vast ocean. Though merely a cyclone, this cyclone is an ocean that can absorb rivers and lakes from all directions, truly embracing everything. The effect is terrifying. For example, whereas before one would have to carry a mountain alone, now one can use a lever-like mechanism to lift it—such a change is undoubtedly earth-shattering! At this level, combat energy flows endlessly, and all aspects of one’s abilities experience a qualitative leap. However, Rod soon fell into a frown again. His armor had indeed become much stronger after reaching this level, with improvements in every aspect, but the faint black veins hidden within the fiery red armor were extremely troubling! Not to mention that the fiery red armor was a symbol of an Imperial-level warrior, and since he was currently at mid-stage Saint level, he already resented having such a color. Moreover, those black veins were undoubtedly the work of dark elements! He could ignore the manifestation of his strength and disregard others’ opinions, letting them treat him as an Imperial-level warrior, but those black veins remained a huge concern for him. Fortunately, this time Rod didn’t notice anything wrong when using his combat energy; there was no rejection or counterattack from dark combat energy. Instead, when he condensed his combat energy armor, dark combat energy seemed to have a stronger effect than fire-type combat energy, which was a small surprise—he hadn’t expected he could actually use this energy! Yet even so, it couldn’t completely put Rod at ease. “Damn it!” Puzzled and unable to find an explanation, Xuan Yuan could only curse again. “Come on, kid! Get ready—we’re starting to plan!” Blaming everything on the Black Dragon, Rod vented his anger on it, believing it was the cause of all this.

So, the first thing that came to mind at this moment was to start retaking revenge. Besides, since he had reached this level, it was time to make preparations! The preparations would take some time, and then he would need to wait for Fen Tian to reach the upper stage of the Saint level. Without any accidents, three months should be more than enough! During this time, aside from making preparations, the more important task would be to master this bizarre energy.
Without hesitation, Rod took Fen Tian with him and headed outside right away to prepare for the upcoming battle. The items in the cave had to be obtained.